SEMESTER'S END 2008

The entire school semester came to an end for me last night at 1:30 am after my last critique ended at Uarts and my cab ride home as the subways had stopped running by then. It started at 9:30 am, so it was a 15 hour day or crits between the last critique of the the Illustration class at DCAD, the egg drop and pizza at DCAD, then the ride back home, the EL ride into the city and then starting at 4pm, the Storyboarding class at Uarts. With some ice coffee, Duncan Donuts and Chex party mix to power us, fellow teachers Chris, Mike and Lowell and I critted well into the wee hours of the night. It was a big class and I think we all felt that they deserved the extra time with the crits, and they were very patient as we soon fell behind in our scheduled "15 minutes' per student.I got to view many of their films and assignments I had not seen before which was really cool.

This was my first year teaching at Uarts and it was really a very enjoyable experience for me, and a learning one too. Often I think you kind of forget that one of the benefits of teaching is that you learn as well. if you are open to it,helping others grow helps you grow too, and I had a really good class of talented and mostly hard working students. A few I think will go one to become film makers, some might be animators and some illustrators.

I think this year teaching helped me also personally in a very big way because of the turmoil in my own personal life, the stress and difficulty I had been dealing with. The energy I get from teaching really helps keep me charged up and it's also healing as well. Some of my students from the past few years have become good friends, and I suspect that will continue with some of the students from this year as well. I had more plates spinning this year than any in my life between the two teaching gigs and being in school myself. Add on the freelance, and well, it was non-stop. But again, that helped me I think focus and keep moving forward through some bad days.

I will miss some of my students who are seniors and it's always with mixed feelings (mostly good one hopes) that we see the younglings leave the final nest one ever has, the last, the womb of school.

Bon voyage the class of 2008